1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates generally to printing and more specifically to a method for printing indicia on porous sheets.
2. Description of the Prior Art
The most commonly used method for printing lettering, decorative designs and other indicia on a sheet medium for making signs, posters, and the like, is to employ the well known silk-screen technique. Even though silk-screen printing is a relatively inexpensive method which can produce a fairly high quality printed product, materials costs, cutting the screen, and other set-up time and clean-up time makes it economically and otherwise unfeasible to employ the silk-screen technique where relatively few printed products are needed.
Due to this, an alternative technique is sometimes used when the number of printed products needed cannot justify the expense and the time involved in the silk-screen technique, and when the quality of the printed products need not be as good as those produced by silk-screening. The alternative technique is the well known stencil process. In one form of stenciling, the cut stencil is placed in overlaying relationship on the medium to be printed and it is sometimes held in place by masking tape while the printing material, such as ink or paint, is applied with suitable rollers or spray equipment. This basic form of stenciling is only used when the quality of the end product is of little concern in that the ink or paint will run or bleed between the medium and the stencil and cause the edges of the indicia to be unclearly defined. When a more clear indicia line definition is desired, masking tape is sometimes used about the edges of the cutout portions of the stencil to hold those edges in contiguous engagement with the medium to be printed. This can only be done when the indicia is of the simplest design and even then it is very time consuming and is no guarantee that bleeding of the printing medium will not occur.
An improved stencil method is sometimes used for producing a single printed product of improved quality, and the improvement involves the use of a special stencil material which is provided with an adhesive on one surface thereof. When the stencil is cut with the desired configuration, it is adhesively affixed to the medium to be printed and the ink or paint is applied in the usual manner. While this is an improvement over the above described stencil methods, some bleeding of the ink or paint will sometimes occur, and removal of the adhesive left behind on the printed product is often required. Further, once used, this special stencil is normally not suited for reuse in that it is oftentimes torn, or at least distorted, when removed and the adhesive is unsuitable for reuse.
Therefore, a new and useful method for printing indicia on porous sheets is needed which overcomes some of the problems and shortcomings of the prior art.